Early Relapse Predicts Poor Outcomes in Aggressive Blood Cancer

Global study led by Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute researchers finds patients whose cancer returns within 12 months have worse survival but may benefit from early use of non-chemotherapy treatments.

Mature nodal T-cell lymphoma is a type of rare and aggressive blood cancer. Limited data make it difficult to identify high-risk patients or tailor treatment strategies, so most patients receive similar care despite differences in disease characteristics and outcomes. A new study led by investigators from PETAL Consortium at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute found that among patients who achieved a complete remission after initial chemotherapy treatment, survival was worse for those whose disease relapsed within 12 months of initial treatment, suggesting that alternative strategies are needed to benefit these patients. The results are published in Blood.

“The study suggests that patients whose cancer returns within 12 months could benefit from starting non-chemotherapy treatments earlier in their care,” said senior author Salvia Jain, MD, founder and principal investigator of PETAL Consortium and a hematologist and medical oncologist at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. “Understanding what’s happening at the molecular level in this high-risk group of patients is key to improving their outcomes and moving T-cell lymphoma treatment toward more personalized care.” 

The study used data from sites around the world to study patients with this rare form of cancer. The team found that relapse within 12 months consistently and significantly predicted worse survival outcomes, regardless of the type of initial treatment the patients received or their individual risk levels as determined by medical assessments. However, for patients who relapsed within that period, survival was improved when they received targeted therapies rather than chemotherapy as their next line of treatment.

“This was a global effort involving more than 100 investigators and data from patients with nodal T-cell lymphoma across three major research groups–PETAL Consortium (global with U.S. predominance), GELL (Latin America), and LYSARC (Europe),” said lead author Mark Sorial, PharmD, BCOP, a researcher at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “This collaborative approach allowed us to gather a wealth of data to better understand the complexities of nodal T-cell lymphoma. Our findings shed light on the differences we see in patient outcomes and pave the way for more personalized treatment strategies.”

Authorship: Mass General Brigham authors include Mark Sorial, Kenechukwu Aniagboso, Emily Buttermore, Matthew Lei, Ellen Kendall, Kristiana Nasto, Min Jung Koh, Makoto Iwasaki, Khyati Kariya, Omar Abduljaleel, Dhruv Mistry, Kusha Chopra, Alexandra Lenart, Jack Malespini, Caroline MacVicar, Sean McCabe, Shambhavi Singh, Judith Gabler, Alexander Disciullo, Josie Ford, Emmanuel Nwodo, Forum Bhanushali, Arushi Meharwal, Corben Wong, Emma DeMarco, Maya Krishnan, Erica Lee, Riya Bhattacharjee, Grace Sun and Salvia Jain.

Disclosures: See the paper for the conflict-of-interest statement. 
 
Funding: This work was supported by Daiichi Sankyo, Secura Bio, Inc., Acrotech Biopharma, Kyowa Kirin, and Center for Lymphoma Research Funds. Jain is supported by the National Cancer Institute K08 Career Development Award (K08CA230498-01A1) and MGH Lymphoma Research Funds. Jacobsen is supported by the Reid Family Fund for Lymphoma Research. O’Connor is supported by the Translational Orphan Blood Cancer Research Center at UVA by the Scarlet Foundation and the National Cancer Institute R01 Research Grant (FD006814).

Paper cited: Sorial, M et al. “Early time-to-relapse as a survival prognosticator in mature T-cell/NK-cell lymphomas: results from the PETAL Consortium” Blood DOI: 10.1182/blood.2025030149